Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Crime Prevention 02219
Crime Prevention 02219
Crime Prevention
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Instructor's Name
Due Date
CRIME PREVENTION 2
Crime Prevention
In the realm of criminal justice, police patrol has been regarded as an effective way of
reducing crime in the United States over the past decades. However, studies have revealed that
the random patrols conducted always yield unexpected results that may not effectively combat
crime in the major crime hotspots (Worall, 2014). To improve the outcome of police patrols, the
chances of corruption should be reduced so that delinquency can be observed and punished.
Therefore, an active police patrol, a surveillance strategy that maintains law and order in all
crime hotspots, should be implemented. Even though various crime hotspots exhibit different
crime patterns, police officers should make sure that they conduct efficient strategies to combat
crimes (Worrall, 2014). Furthermore, police discretion should be practiced by all patrol officers
for effective results to be realized. This paper focuses on how effective police patrol and
discretion can help in effectively protecting communities and reducing crime rates in the United
States.
Urban crime affects approximately every city across the world. There are various
characteristics of urban crime that must be understood so that the prevention strategies might be
effective. Firstly, besides terrorist activities, typically, most urban criminals do not plan their
crimes well. These criminals seek chances in executing their activities, and when they occur,
they strike without having a second thought. The state can only help by having police officers
designated in various areas and doing certain jobs to prevent crime. Therefore, staffing of police
within various areas is a crucial act since it might reduce crime rates. In addition, police
departments should be keen when conducting patrol allocations as this might greatly impact the
community's safety.
CRIME PREVENTION 3
Tactics
Individual or serial crimes only happen when offenders come into conduct with their
potential targets in the absence of any qualified supervision. Therefore, having the best tactics
incorporated in police patrols help in reducing possible crimes from occurring. There are three
main tactics that the police may employ when carrying out their patrols. The apprehension tactic
works best when there is an opportunity of detecting and arresting offenders. This tactic can only
be possible if police use informants, silent alarms, and surveillance cameras (Corsaro, 2018).
Police officers might also make use of the suppression tactic, which involves scaring offenders
without arresting them. The tactic is common only when crimes are minor, and there is little
information on the offenders or officers who do not know the criminal's next move. Officers
usually make directed patrols, random checkpoints and use dogs to scare away would-be
criminals (Miranda, 2020). Lastly, police may employ the hardening tactic to focus on
monitoring the target rather than the criminals. The police officers get involved by using
Patrolling Experiences
When police patrols began in the 1800s, they were normally conducted by foot, but with
advancements in technology and criminals becoming smarter, patrol methods and tactics have
changed over time. In the 21st century, various patrol methods are used in an attempt to contain
and reduce crime. The police department of Kansas conducted a good example of a patrol
experiment. A one-year patrol experiment was organized by the Missouri Police Department
between October 1972 and September 1973 (Hansen et al., 2021). The experiment aimed to
determine whether police presence in public could deter and reduce crime in the state. The police
were divided into three groups, reactive, control, and proactive group. The reactive group of
CRIME PREVENTION 4
police only appeared when there was a call of service and thus never conducted normal patrols.
The control group was left to carry out the normal day-to-day operations. They responded to
calls for service, carried out foot and vehicle patrols. Finally, in the proactive group, the number
of police officers was increased by twice or thrice the usual one (Hansen et al., 2021). At the end
of the experiment, it was noted that there was no substantial impact on the crime rates within the
Various aspects must be taken into consideration for effective police patrol methods to be
realized. While ensuring the community's safety, police officers must deter, prevent any crimes
and respond to distress calls from the public. Many parts are intertwined to ensure that societies
remain safe. When all the parts work in collaboration, community policing boosts the results of
police officers as more recruits from the community take this as their career. Therefore, police
officers will always have valid and reliable information regarding criminal activities in the
communities. In the case of the Crisis Intervention Team and de-escalation, all police officers in
the department should coordinate effectively to make sure intervention missions are executed in
time and the right manner. Early intervention and response to individual distress calls can
effectively solve issues before becoming the nation’s center of attention. With the right data and
information, the trustworthiness and performance of police officers within their communities can
improve.
In the Missouri Police Department case, readers would be obliged to think that the
experiment brought the best police patrol method to light. Increasing the presence of police
officers among the public might be viewed as a way of improving safety. For instance, if an over
speeding individual spots a police vehicle in the distance, the probability of that person slowing
CRIME PREVENTION 5
down is approximately 90 percent. However, increasing the volume of police officers in an area
might have negative impacts too. In this regard, the best patrolling method can only be achieved
In the 21st century, one of the major technological advancements that police departments
have seen is in information and data collection. This is due to all the developed technologies
existing in the modern world; facial recognition tools, license plate readers, social media, and
cameras on buildings, street poles, and police officers (Nowacki et al., 2018). At the same time,
criminals are constantly improving g their methods of execution and are quick adopters of
technology. Currently, incidents are going from local to national in a matter of seconds. In
addition, demographic and technological shifts are changing where, who, what, and how law
enforcement work is done. Dramatic and rapid changes are touching all the aspects within the
ecosystem that law enforcement operates. However, having all these data and information
systems does not mean that crime in the communities reduces. On the contrary, if only this data
could be put to good use by law enforcement officers, there would be a positive change within
Police departments should emphasize having positive police discretion within their
officers. This is the ability of officers to make decisions based on what they believe is
appropriate in the current situation. If police officers can make judgments in certain situations,
crime rates will reduce in most cities. However, a police officer could misuse their discretion in
various ways. In the United States, racial profiling has been one of the key ways police discretion
is misused. For instance, in a group of three individuals walking in the street, two whites and one
black, a police officer's decision to only search the black man would be a misuse of his discretion
practiced across all states. Positive police discretion, such as efficient use of resources, good
judgment, sound public policy, and justice, can contribute to the advancement of security in the
community. In the modern world, police discretion is crucial as it can be used in profiling
professional judgment among their officers and put in place informal bureaucratic controls. The
criminal justice system should also review officers' behavior to ensure that the decisions and
actions they undertake are within the law (de Almeida, 2021). Officers should also consider the
administrative rulemaking, which determines what an officer must do in a certain situation, what
an officer cannot do in a situation and other issues that the officer must consider before acting.
In this paper, I have discussed the role of police patrols in ensuring the safety and
reduction of crimes in communities. The various tactics that the police should employ to make
their patrols effective have also been highlighted. However, this paper does not touch on all the
efforts being developed to make the police force more effective as the field is constantly
changing and growing. All law enforcement agencies must keep up with modern technological
References
Charbonneau, A., & Glaser, J. (2021). Suspicion and Discretion in Policing: How Laws and
Hansen, A., & Arrowood, T. (2021). Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment. The
Nowacki, J. S., & Willits, D. (2018). Adoption of body cameras by United States police
Zhang, C., Gholami, S., Kar, D., Sinha, A., Jain, M., Goyal, R., & Tambe, M. (2016). Keeping